Toy News Tuesday: 3 Weeks To Toy Fair 2015

It’s an all new week and you’re reading an all new Toy News Tuesday – the one weekly column right here on ScienceFiction.com where we seek out all of the awesome news you need to know about any announcements and cool happenings in the toy industry and put them all in one easy to find place for you! Toy Fair 2015 is just a few weeks away and every major company seems to be scrambling to get out early announcements to whet our appetites for collecting! This week alone there have been a TON of cool new reveal, so we can only imagine what they’ve got in store for us in the coming weeks! Let’s just dig right into the Toy News for the week of January 20th, 2015!

Animated Arkham Must Be Getting Crowded

The crew over at DC Collectibles sure have been busy crafting new figures for us in 2015, and we’re only three weeks in! While Series 2 of their already super popular toy line based on the iconic 90’s cartoon ‘Batman The Animated Series’ has yet to hit shelves (but should be any day now!), they’re already giving fans an early look at figures coming out way later this year in Series 4 and Series 5!

First up, the team over at AFI got an exclusive first look at the new Roxy Rocket figure, which is the very first Deluxe figure in the line! Aside from the usual episode specific type of accessories like her flare gun, electro gun, and wrench, Roxy comes packaged with her Rocket Vehicle! The Rocket Vehicle is full scale, so Roxy can ride it just like in the series, and features built in light effects! Roxy has an MSRP of $39.99 and is expected to hit around August of 2015- likely alongside Series 4 of the figures!

Next, DC Collectibles announced the all new Scarecrow figure that fans can expect to see in Series 5! Not much information has been given for this new Scarecrow figure beyond that he’ll be sporting his ‘The New Batman Adventures’ look from Season 4 of the show. Scarecrow, along with the rest of Series 5 of ‘Batman The Animated Series’ figures from DC Collectibles, is expected to his this fall.

Marvel, Wait-For-It… LEGENDS!

SHIELD 3-Pack

While these figures are still a few months away from release in the U.S., several Ebay sellers from overseas apparently have the new Marvel Legends Agents of SHIELD boxset available! While we don’t recommend buying from these sellers (which we won’t post here for that reason), the items they have posted for sale have give us a much better look as to what we can expect from the figures in this box set!

This upcoming figure 3-pack is set to include 6” scale versions of everyone’s favorite SHIELD Agents from the Marvel Cinematic Universe- Nick Fury, Phil Coulson, and Maria Hill! While Coulson looks like a most new figure here, Maria Hill looks like she shares a few parts with last years ‘Black Widow‘ figure, and Nick Fury is just a straight up re-release of the 2011 Nick Fury figure from the Walmart Exclusive ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ 6” line.

The Thanos Wave

The crew over at MarvelousNews have released what they are speculating as the Marvel Legends Avengers Wave 2 Assortment, which is expected to his stores as soon as this February! The rumored figure assortment is set to include movie and comic book versions of key ‘Avengers’ characters, with each figure coming with a Build-a-Figure piece to collect and build your very own 6” scale Marvel Legends Thanos!

The figures rumored to be in this wave include Batroc, Valkyrie, Hellcat, and Spiderwoman based on comic book appearances, with movie styled versions of Captain America, The Hulk, and Iron Man Mark 43 Armor based on their appearances in this summer’s upcoming ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’. There are currently no images available of the Iron Man Mark 43 Armor figure, but the rest have all been previewed by Hasbro in some capacity.

Hasbro Mashes More in 2015

According to an interview with Forbes, Hasbro has big plans to continue their Hero Mashers toyline well into 2015 with a ton of new brands joining the line! While we’ve seen Marvel Comics and Transformers get the Hero Mashers treatment in 2014, this year in 2015 we can expect to see Marvel expand further to include an ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ line, plus they’ll be joined by both ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Jurassic World’ series!

The upcoming ‘Star Wars’ figures are based on the currently airing ‘Rebels’ animated series, and only figures of Kanan and Zeb have been revealed so far. As of yet it has not been said by Hasbro whether or not we can expect to see this line expand past ‘Rebels’ to include any of the classic of prequel trilogy characters, let alone any characters from the upcoming ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’.

The ‘Jurassic World’ series looks to be comprised entirely of the film’s Dinosaurs, so don’t expect a Hero mashers Christ Pratt just yet! Still, these expansions look to really build out a whole new world of figures you can take apart and combine into ‘mashers’ for yourself!

Dark Horse Wakes The Dragon

While their series of statuesque figures based on HBO’s hit live-action ‘Game of Thrones’ series has been deemed a major success across the board, Dark Horse hasn’t released quite as many characters in their larger scale ‘Game of Thrones’ statue series. The latest release has been announced as Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons, with the largest and arguably most iconic of her trio of pets, Drogon. Dark Horse will be showcasing a prototype of this upcoming release at New York Toyfair 2015 in February. Check out the full release from Dark Horse below:

Dark Horse is kicking things off for Toy Fair with the reveal of the latest release in its growing line of figures based on characters from the smash-hit HBO series Game of Thrones®!

Daenerys Targaryen, the last noble of her house, is on a path to reclaim her destiny in Game of Thrones. She has emerged as one of the series’ best-loved characters. Dark Horse Deluxe has focused on an iconic moment of Daenerys and her dragon, Drogon, to create an elaborately detailed pre-painted limited-edition statue measuring 14” across and 18” from front to back.

“Our previous large-scale Game of Thrones statues sold out shortly after release, ” said Dark Horse product development head David Scroggy. “We saw pieces like our 14” Iron Throne replica, and the Jon Snow & Ghost statue going out-of-print quickly, becoming hard to find at any price. We expect the Daenerys & Drogon statue to be just as popular and we’re very excited to unveil it at Toy Fair.”

The prototype will be revealed at the Dark Horse booth #4837 at Toy Fair 2015, held February 14-17 at Jacob Javits Center in New York City. The limited-edition quantity is still to be determined as of press time. Daenerys & Drogon will be packaged in full color oversize collector box. Release date is estimated summer 2015. Suggested retail price is $424.99

More Marvel Cinematic Minimates Inbound

Never ones to let down their fans, the team at Diamond Select Toys has a TON of cool new stuff coming our way later this year! For fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are a bunch fo new Minimates coming and then some!

This summer we’ve got two assortments (sort of) of Minimates based on Marvel’s upcoming ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’! Now, we say ‘sort of’ because while there are two separate assortments being released, they are comprised of many of the same figures. The first assortment will be sold exclusively at Toys R Us stores, and will include Captain America with Thor, Iron Man with Black Widow, and the Toys R Us Exclusive set of Quicksilver with Scarlet Witch!

At every other Minimate retailer, you can expect a slightly different assortment of figures, including Captain America with Thor, Iron Man with Black Widow, and two variant Hawkeye packs! One set includes Hawkeye in his usualy vest-y costume with the films major villain, Ultron! The other pack comes with Hawkeye in his fancy new digs, a longer coat, packed along with a ‘Sub-Ultron’, which is assumedly a drone type of character and not the lead villain himself.

Aside from ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ Minimates, DST has revealed during one of their regular ‘Ask DST’ Q&A blog-posts, that we can expect to see movie-styled ‘Antman’ Minimates in some capacity. It hasn’t yet been announced what characters we would be getting, or even if it would be in the usual figure 2-packs or a box set. Diamond Select has only said that “Antman will get some Minimate love”, which sounds good enough for me!

The Deadly Vipers Minimates

In order to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Quentin Tarantino’s acclaimed ‘Kill Bill’ films, DST has released a series of special Minimate Box Sets! Each figure 4-pack comes with iconic characters from the film series, and the latest one was revealed this week exclusively on ToyHypeUSA! The ‘Deadly Vipers’ box set includes Beatrix Kiddo, Vernita Green, Bud, and Elle Driver in 2” Minimate form. This set is expected to release this summer!

TMNT Minimates Back For More

After the astounding success of the first series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Minimate Blind-Bag single figure packs, it’s no surprise to see DST announce a whole new wave of figures! Previewed exlusively over at ToyArk, the all new Series 2 of TMNT Bling-Bag Minimates looks to bring us new versions of our four lead turtles while also expanding the ranks of non-turtle characters with Splinter, Casey Jones and more! As of this time there is no word whether these figures will also be made available as standard release figure 2-packs like Series 1 was after the initial release. The full release from DST is below:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Minimates Series 2 Foil Bag Counter Display A Diamond Select Toys Release! Ninja Turtles Minimates are back, with new Turtles, new friends and new enemies! Each countertop display contains 18 blind-bagged pouches, and each pouch contains one 2-inch Minimates mini-figure, featuring interchangeable parts and accessories. The assortment includes nine different Minimates, including new versions of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, plus new characters Splinter, Casey Jones, Karai, Chris Bradford and a Norman! There’s a full set in every case! Designed by Art Asylum! Blind bag SRP: $5.99/ea.

Valiant Minimates Taking Some Damage

While there has been very little word regarding when the Valiant Comics Minimate 2-Pack we saw way back at NYCC 2014 will be hitting (or where for that matter, as it’s said to be a retailer exclusive set), the team over at CBR have gotten an exclusive first look at an all new ‘Battle Damaged’ Minimate 2-pack featuring the same two Valiant Comics characters- Bloodshot and X-O Manowar! These figures are set to hit later this summer.

Going Where No Comic Book Men Have Gone Before

While they’re probably one of the last set of characters you ever thought would get the Minimates treatment, the cast of AMC’s hit reality series ‘Comic Book Men’ are coming to life in 2” plastic form! That’s right, later this year you’ll be able to get Walt, Brian, Mike, Ming, and Kevin Smith himself as Minimates! It’s not yet been said how these figures will be sold (single packs? 2-packs? A box set?), but they premiered this past weekend at the ‘Tusk Day’ event at Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash in Red Bank, NJ.

Who Lives In a Pineapple Under The Sea?

Okay, so remember how we just said that the guys from ‘Comic Book Men’ where the lat set of characters you ever thought would get the Minimate treatment? We were wrong, because DST just blew us away with the big reveal of their all new ‘Spongebob Squarepants’ Series 1 Minimate assortment! Revealed exclusively at AFI, this all new series of figure 2-packs includes our hero Spongebob with Sandy, Patrick with Squidward, Mr. Krabs with Perch Perkins, and a special rare one-per-case set featuring Grandpappy Redbeard and an orange Perch Perkins variant figure! These are expected to his stores this summer!

“Aren’t You A Little Short For A Bust?”

DST has one last reveal for this week in the form of an all new Star Wars Stormtrooper 8” Vinyl Bust Bank! Revealed exclusively on Yodas News, this is yet another release in their fantastic series of medium scale busts that double as coin banks! They’re functional while also making really cool display pieces! Another major bonus is that their being vinyl makes them a lot less fragile than most standard collectible busts, so it’s a win-win! This all new classic Stormtrooper is set to release sometime later this year, although there is no official date currently set.

NECA Sneak Peeks

The team at NECA recently showed off some very early looks at a few upcoming figures via their social media pages this past week!

First up, we’ve got an early look at this Conquest Gorilla from Series 3 of their ‘Planet of the Apes Classic’ 7” scale line! This figure comes loaded with a bunch of accessories like a machete, cleaver, riot shield, and a rifle!

Then there’s this brand new Dallas figure from ‘ALIEN’ Series 4! This figure is still in very early development stages, so it’s a pretty rough model seen here. Still, it’s a nice look at what we can expect to see from this figure when it releases later this year!

Rock Out Goat Style

After last week’s announcement of a special ‘Year of the Goat’ edition Optimus Prime figure coming our way, it was only a matter of time before we received a Decepticon counterpart to go with him in our collections! Last year we got a ‘Year of the Horse’ Optimus Prime and Starscream, so this year to go with our ‘Goat’ edition Optimus Prime we’re getting a special edition ‘Year of the Goat’ Soundwave figure!

Hasbro announced this figure this week on the Official Transformers Facebook page, with a first look at the figure as well as the five mini-cassette Recordicon figures that come packed with him! This set has a rumored MSRP of $190, and it is set to be a Toys R Us Exclusive.

Funko Forecast

Get ready for the Funko Forecast! This is where we’re going to be showcasing all of the cool new announcements and reveals from Funko! With all of the awesome that consistently seems to be flowing out of those guys, it shouldn’t be hard to keep this section alive each and every week!

This Mad Titan Glows With Anger

Entertainment Earth has announced an exclusive Glow in the Dark version of the upcoming 6” Super-Sized Funko POP! Vinyl Thanos figure! Based on his appearance in last summer’s box office smash ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, Thanos already towers above most other POP! Vinyl’s as a 6” super-sized POP!, but now he’ll be glowing in the dark to show his true power! He’s up for pre-order already at Entertainment Earth and is expected to release this March!

Funko Goes Inside Out

Disney and Pixar’s new animated feature ‘Inside Out’ hits theaters this June, but this May we can expect to see a new wave of Funko POP! Vinyl’s coming our way based on the film! Revealed exclusively on Mtv, this new wave of POP! Vinyl figures is comprised of five characters from the film- Joy, Anger, Fear, Sadness, and Disgust.

Cruising In The Crystal Ship

‘Breaking Bad’ the show may be over, but Funko keeps the hits coming with their all new ‘Crystal Ship’ POP! Ride! This POP! Ride is due to hit in February, and comes packaged with an all new Jesse figure!

Funko Vinyl Idolz

This past week there was a mysterious and rather vague announcement from Funko regarding an all new product line called ‘Vinyl Idolz’. It looks to be a collaboration between Funko, A Large Evil Corporation, and Vinyl Sugar; who are an all new company to the vinyl figure game! It’s expected we’ll be getting more information on this line at Toy Fair 2015 in just a few short weeks! The only info posted so far from Funko is below:

Vinyl Sugar is the illegitimate love child between Funko and some of the best free-wheeling designers from the back streets of London, the boutiques of Harajuku, and the galleries in NYC. Vinyl Sugar – because you crave it!

And with that, we bring this week’s Toy News Tuesday to a close! What do you think about the new items announced this week? Do you plan on picking up anything we mentioned in this week’s column? Are there any lines or brands you’d like to see more coverage of? Let us know in the comments section below! Until next week, happy toy hunting!

Jordan DesJardins

Jordan DesJardins is a writer from Philadelphia with a passion for the collectible! Jordan is ScienceFiction's resident Toy Columnist, covering news for the Toy Industry in our weekly column 'Toy News Tuesday', as well as interviews, convention coverage, product reviews, and more! As an avid collector of both Toys and Comics, Jordan can often be found at comic conventions, or scouring the city for the latest Minimates and Funko Pops to hit the shelves!